Eugenics is another word for the selective breeding of humans. From 1929 to 1974, North Carolina’s eugenics program sterilized close to 7,600 men and women, making it impossible for them to reproduce or conceive, according to The Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation. For additional background, please see N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation.

Z. Smith Reynolds Library

Special Collections & Archives

• Biennial reports of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina 1934-1950
• William Louis Poteat Papers, MS91

Student Theses (RG36)

• Edgerton, Sidney Alonzo. “Eugenics, Its progress and its arch enemy”. Jr. Thesis (1911 March 1) [box 9 volume 208]
• Rogers, Leland Oliver. “Eugenics a Social Question”. Sr. Thesis (1913) [box 10 volume 213]
• Sawyer, Roland M. “Eugenics”. Sr. Thesis, Department of Education (1913 May 1) [box 10 volume 213]
• Woodside, Moya. Sterilization in North Carolina: a sociological and psychological study. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1950. [Special Collections – Reynolds 6th Floor (Library Use Only) HV4989 .W6 1950]

Secondary Resources

• Ariyo, Oluwunmi. Making the “unfit” individual : analysis of the rhetoric of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina, 2006 (M.A., Wake Forest University)
• Brown, Eugene. Eugenical sterilization in North Carolina: A brief survey of the growth of eugenical sterilization and a report on the work of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina through June 30, 1935
• Begos, Kevin; Deaver, Danielle; Railey, John; Sexton, Scott. Against their will: North Carolina’s sterilization program (Winston-Salem Journal). Apalachicola, FL: Gray Oak Books, 2012.
• Reel South: The State of Eugenics (Video, aired 1/26/2017, PBS)

Coy C. Carpenter Library

Dorothy Carpenter Medical Archives

• Manson Meads Collection (Executive Dean (1959-1963) and Dean (1963-1971)
• Box 3: Budget and Financial Statements 1949-1954
• Box 7 (Foundations) Carnegie Corporation and Medical Genetics Reports, unlabelled box, Carpenter folder
• Herndon, C. Nash Collection
• Felts, John newspaper loose clippings
• Subject Files: Gray Family History and Medical Genetics

For further information and access, please see Dorothy Carpenter Medical Archives or contact Dianne Johnston, Archivist.